Iran's Parliament approves a hard-line Cabinet in Tehran

Iran’s parliament, the Majlis approved 18 of the 21 proposed candidates in the Cabinet re-shuffle. Outstanding candidates included the first female parliamentary since the 1979 revolution Marzieh-Vahid Dastjerdi. The other was Brigadier Ahmad Vahidi who won the highest number of votes.

Marzieh-Vahid Dastjerdi studied medicine at the University of Tehran and is a qualified gynaecologist. In May 1999 she went to Turkey to lead protests against the ban on headscarves stating that they were an “affront to Muslims and a crime against human rights”.

Brigadier Ahmad Vahidi was Iran's deputy defence minister, and founder of the IRGC's "Lebanon Corps" in the 1980s.

The legislators approved President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's choice of the following individuals for the leading posts at the country's ministries:

(Candidates: Votes in favor, Votes against, Abstentions)

Minister of Foreign Affairs Manouchehr Mottaki: 173, 79, 34

Minister of Oil Masoud Mirkazemi: 147, 117, 19

Minister of Defense Brigadier Ahmad Vahidi: 227, 54, 5

Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi: 194, 67, 25

Minister of Justice Morteza Bakhtiari: 225, 36, 23

Minister of Interior Mostafa Mohammad Najjar: 182, 75, 25

Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Seyyed Shamseddin Hosseini: 224, 41, and 21

Minister of Commerce Mehdi Ghazanfari: 158, 91, 37

Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini: 194, 61, 31

Minister of Cooperatives Mohammad Abbasi: 163, 83, 37

Minister of Industries and Mines Ali Akbar Mehrabian: 153, 103, 27

Minister of Jihad-e-Agriculture Sadeq Khalilian: 200, 54, 32

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Reza Taqipour: 197, 62, 27

Minister of Health Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi: 175, 82, 29

Minister of Housing and Urban Development Abdolreza
Sheikholeslami: 193, 63, 30

Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Ali Nikzad: 219, 40, 27

Minister of Science, Research and Technology Kamran Daneshjoo: 186, 75, 25

Minister of Road and Transportation Hamid Behbahani: 167, 83, 33

Their first meeting is to be held in the northeastern city of Mashhad on Sunday.